Smith and the adult films - nothing to hide nothing to fear

Simon Jenkins is in good form at the Guardian today, pleased that the Home Secretary has been hoist by her own petard, after the revelations of her husband's porn watching and her subsequent claiming for the cost of it on expenses.

"Sweet is the spectacle of a home secretary bitten by her own snake. The outrage of Jacqui Smith's television expenses claim lies not in its content, lurid as it is, but in the way it was exposed. How many times must the home secretary have been assured in security briefings that her latest purchase of some data storage gizmo was "totally secure"?

"Don't worry," the briefers would have said, "the material will be protected by the finest firewalls, the most foolproof anti-hacking devices and the most savage legal defence. Nothing will be transferable and only the highest in the land will have access. Besides, home secretary, as you have so often said, the innocent have nothing to fear."

Yes, they do. They have the revelation of their husband's taste in movies, apparently leaked by contractors in receipt of easily copied discs, now on offer to anyone with £300,000...

In the last eight years, the same MPs who are howling at their data vulnerability have voted for the most extensive surveillance system in Europe, as well as the biggest data storage in the most expensive and inept computers. Britain under Labour has become the world capital of privacy intrusion...

In 2000, just nine organisations were allowed warrants to access secure government records: the figure is now almost 800. For a small fee, anyone will be able to learn anything about anyone else. It may be illegal, but like computer downloads it will happen...

One of the few home secretaries who dominated his department rather than be cowed by it was Lord Whitelaw in the 1980s. He boasted how after any security lapse, the police would come to beg for new and draconian powers. He laughed and sent them packing, saying only a bunch of softies would erode British liberty to give themselves an easier job. He said they laughed in return and remarked that "it was worth a try".

Now the try always works. What is extraordinary is the weakness of the liberty lobby in opposition...

The only hope is that now MPs... might be more mindful of the liberties - and privacies - of others. I would not hold my breath."